City Hall Exposé: Ethics, Background Checks, and Taxpayer Dollars on the Line

[00:00:00] Mike's on Mic, a conversation about politics, government and Jacksonville. With 50-year

[00:00:08] opinion leaders Mike Hightower, Mike Tolbert, an award-winning broadcaster and longtime

[00:00:14] political observer, Mike Miller. Hello everybody and welcome again to Mike's

[00:00:18] on Mic another episode for this week. Mike Hightower is with me here in the studio. Mike

[00:00:23] Tolbert is back in his farm and once again as always, this episode of Mike's on

[00:00:28] Mic is brought to you by the Jacksonville Historical Society which is going to be located in

[00:00:32] the Jacksonville History Center and our thanks to Alan Bliss and all the fine donors who

[00:00:37] are keeping this program on the air. Thank you all.

[00:00:39] Today, we don't have a guest in the studio. It's just a three of us jabbing away on two

[00:00:45] completely different topics by the way. The first concerns and meeting that was held recently

[00:00:50] by the Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee were members discussed or in some cases attacked

[00:00:56] the mayor's awarding of a single source contract, Mike Langton Consulting for grant writing

[00:01:00] and for lobbying services. But this specific target of this Council Committee meeting was

[00:01:07] actually a contract employee working for Langton in his name is Stephen Derr. Derr,

[00:01:13] who's now 59 years old, was 21 at a time when he had trouble with the law which I'm going

[00:01:18] to get into in just a few minutes. Many of us, most of you probably know Stephen from

[00:01:23] one vocation or another very well known, very well-liked, very talented journalist by the

[00:01:29] way along with being just a very fine fellow. And with that, Mike Tobert, why don't you

[00:01:33] kick this off?

[00:01:34] Well, you know, Stephen is a very unusual guy. I remember the first time I met him, he's

[00:01:42] kind of unforgettable. I went over to see Blair Wobleton and her Abendale shop to talk

[00:01:49] about some environmental stuff and that's where, and that's when I met him. He was in

[00:01:53] that shop that day and I've never forgotten that. Then several years ago, I would just

[00:01:59] curious about Stephen. He's always, he's always interested in me. So I called him and I

[00:02:04] asked him if I could spend an entire day with him. I just wanted to go where he went,

[00:02:09] hear what he had to say, see who he saw and just get to knowing better. And I did and it

[00:02:14] was incredible. So I was really appalled, although I don't know that I was surprised when

[00:02:22] I watched that finance committee meeting and saw the behavior of the chair Nick Halen

[00:02:27] and Council President Ron Salem. In my mind, it was unfounded character assassination akin

[00:02:35] to the McCarthy hearings. Let's begin with this piece of video from something chairman

[00:02:40] Halen said.

[00:02:41] When there's executive overreach or you think there might be, even if there isn't, you

[00:02:45] should be questioning it. When there's potential misuse of taxpayer dollars, you should be

[00:02:49] questioning it. And so what this session is about here is another issue that's a reason

[00:02:55] related to the Lankton Associates contract. Some people have questions about contractor

[00:03:00] access and background checks. I'm more focused on potential misuse of taxpayer dollars. We

[00:03:06] awarded a contract to affirm that we said was the only one in the city, stayed in nation

[00:03:12] that can do public policy lobbying and grant writing. We subsequently learned that they

[00:03:17] outsource their lobbying and now we're learning with this new information that they potentially

[00:03:22] outsource their public policy which leads to my questioning and you'll see what it's

[00:03:27] about is our, did we just do a single source contract to a company that should just do

[00:03:32] in a pass through, in which case there's even less justifications for such a contract.

[00:03:37] Mike Miller it seems to me that chairman, chairman Halen is a pot calling the kettle black

[00:03:42] here. Remind us how he slipped taxpayer money for his nonprofit into the city budget.

[00:03:48] All right, well this is a very, it's really, very interesting story. The city of Jacksonville

[00:03:53] and I'm taking this from an article that was written by David Bauer line from the Times

[00:03:56] Union. I want to give him credit for this but they're posed, poor is rather deboosted.

[00:04:01] It's financial support to $150,000 for the Northeast Florida Fire Watch Council which is

[00:04:07] an organization that strives to stop veteran suicides and has had ties over the years with

[00:04:13] city council members Nick Holland and Rory Diamond. Diamond who has made veterans programs

[00:04:19] and ethics a great part of his campaign as part of the canines for warriors. Holland

[00:04:24] joined city council in March after winning a special election. He was the executive director

[00:04:29] of the Northeast Florida Fire Watch Council, though until August of 2022. But while Firewatch

[00:04:36] Council is a governmental entity authorised by state law, it does have a contract through

[00:04:43] a separate nonprofit organization called the Firewatch Project Incorporated. In contrast,

[00:04:48] Firewatch Council will pay the nonprofit $175,200 to provide program and administrative

[00:04:55] services for the regional government organization, which is comprised of five different counties.

[00:05:00] He stepped away from the Northeast Florida Firewatch Council role on August the 15th

[00:05:05] is concentrating his work instead on the Firewatch Project but that was given, that organization

[00:05:12] was given the $150,000 by city council and did not go through the public service grants

[00:05:18] process or any other process for review when it was snuck into the budget correct my

[00:05:23] October. I think that's absolutely correct and you know in in howl and the hypocrisy is

[00:05:32] it's really outstanding and all through that finance committee meeting he kept beating

[00:05:37] this drum about ethics and what his real concern was here. Roll that piece of video.

[00:05:46] My concern is a single source award with flimsy justification done relatively quietly

[00:05:53] resisting and call the rebid almost a potential veto of a transparency bill and potential

[00:06:01] misuse of taxpayer dollars. Before you go on can I just say one other thing about

[00:06:04] Stephen Der and that is something that people need to put into perspective. One of the

[00:06:09] reasons why Howland and others on the finance committee went after Stephen was because

[00:06:14] he had a prison, he had a police record correct let me tell you what that police record

[00:06:20] was in 1986 Stephen Der pleaded no contest to a charge of ludonous serious behavior which

[00:06:30] by the way is a second degree misdemeanor. Now keep in mind, like I said, ludonous

[00:06:37] serious behavior. Why was he charged with that? Because homosexuality and Jacksonville

[00:06:42] was illegal at that time and when it was found that he had committed a homosexual act

[00:06:49] that's when he was charged with the secondary misdemeanor. What did he get for that? When

[00:06:54] he pleaded no contest, a find of $150 and two days in jail. That's this guy's criminal

[00:07:01] record that Howland and others are going after him for 38 years ago. 38 years ago. And

[00:07:09] then blaming the mayor's administration for not going and getting any background check

[00:07:15] on him, which wouldn't even show it to be honest with you if they had done so but he's

[00:07:20] not an employee for the city is an employee for a consultant, which is another reason

[00:07:24] why they did not do a background check. I think I got that right. Well said.

[00:07:28] Well said. The human resources officer for the city set a cup of things. She said

[00:07:34] number one, they don't do background checks on consultants. They depend on the hiring

[00:07:41] firm to do that. But secondly, she said, knowing what she knows about the situation, had they

[00:07:47] done a background check he would have passed. She said they tracked state law and in state

[00:07:54] law says you can get their second chances. So if you committed an offense more than three

[00:08:02] years ago, then you can pass a background check and it happens a good bit in city government

[00:08:08] she said not always, but a good bit it happens. And she said he's Stephen would have absolutely

[00:08:14] passed the background check. Yeah. Go ahead. Let's go back to the hypocrisy of what we're

[00:08:22] talking about. I thought it was interesting for Matt Carlucci pointed out at this same

[00:08:27] finance meeting that Howland was criticizing mayor for something that had been done by

[00:08:32] the council. Let's remind let me remind the council to this video. Now let me remind

[00:08:39] this council and this is an all due respect to my friend council president Salem. Council

[00:08:47] president Salem asked for council member to pick a law firm for us to approve. And

[00:08:54] I believe it was announced that law firm has been chosen. And I don't think that vote

[00:09:00] comes before the council. I think it comes before the personnel committee and that's

[00:09:03] what the way that's the way the law says. So nothing's been done that's been wrong or illegal,

[00:09:12] but we're single sourcing. We didn't put out for an RFP or an RFQ. And I just think

[00:09:19] we need to be careful before we start pointing fingers so much because there's three or

[00:09:26] four of the fingers that point right back at us. And I tell you, I am not perfect in

[00:09:32] any nobody up here perfect and there's nobody up here that hasn't gotten into a little trouble

[00:09:38] that maybe they're glad they didn't get caught. So I think we need to leave Mr. Dare alone

[00:09:44] unless we have something specifically in mind and that would be taken up by the proper

[00:09:50] authorities. So we are doing with this law firm the same thing that the mayor's office

[00:10:01] was perfectly allowed to do under the previous law. Yeah, you know, Matt also spoke up at

[00:10:09] defense of Stephen Dair somebody he's known a long, long time. I wondered if Matt, well

[00:10:14] watching that committee, I wondered how long Matt was going to sit silent while all

[00:10:20] this nonsense was going on. Let's play what Matt said about Stephen.

[00:10:25] I've known Mr. Dare since I was 32, 33 years old as a freshman council member and I've

[00:10:36] known him since then. Now I'm not perfect and apparently he's not perfect either but I can

[00:10:45] tell you he's been a good friend, he's been a heck of a resource to me. This kid called

[00:10:53] him a kid because he used to be a kid when I first knew him now we're both older guys but Mr.

[00:11:00] Dare I found to be one of the brightest people and it surprised me because he was never dressed

[00:11:13] in a coat and tie. You know, just who Stephen Dare was but when I say he is a great writer

[00:11:22] he is a great writer. When I say he is smart, he is real smart. When I say he loves Jacksonville

[00:11:31] he loves Jacksonville and there's a cadre of people in the business community today that I could

[00:11:39] pull up here if I wanted to that would defend his abilities. It seems President Salem was hung

[00:11:46] up on the fact that after an offense that was committed 38 years ago that Stephen Dair was allowed

[00:11:51] a security badge now a security badge allows you to get into the front door of City Hall. However,

[00:11:57] they're all programmed differently depending on what your position is and where what you hold as far

[00:12:03] as your responsibilities are concerned. So Stephen because he was part of the transition team was able

[00:12:09] to get to the mayor's office not into the city council's area and that question was asked by the

[00:12:13] way in that hearing you did not have access to go in there in order to try to he went from basically

[00:12:19] into the front doors and up to the mayor's area where he headed by the way a desk in her office so

[00:12:26] that he could work there as part of the consultant program that went on. The city's human resource

[00:12:31] director as as Mike Tobor just pointed out follows that state law allowing second chances. Now keep

[00:12:37] in mind, he served as a valuable member. There's this Stephen Dair both Deegan's transition team

[00:12:42] and it seemed to work extra time as a volunteer being hired by Langton and once again we reiterate

[00:12:48] this was an offense a second degree misdemeanor that happened 38 years ago.

[00:12:55] Can I just say? You know something that if you're Ron Salem is so damn sanctimonious anyhow

[00:13:03] Ron was so concerned about the security of City Hall that somebody like Stephen Dair could harm

[00:13:09] city employees for God's damn excuse me city council members. I mean in the character assassination

[00:13:17] that went on in that meeting with those people is just abominable and it's got to stop. I mean Mike

[00:13:23] he was Mike Hyatt tower you were talking about this is gotcha politics. It is called Mayor Deegan

[00:13:29] won the election and they can't stand it and Tim Baker handled all these council members who handled

[00:13:35] about Daniel Davis and he lost it. So they did explain cop politics gotcha politics with Donna Deegan.

[00:13:42] Absolutely and here we are what eight months later and we're still playing gotcha politics.

[00:13:49] We are a community of over a million one people we've got a lot of things going

[00:13:55] and for the plate gotcha politics listen Mike you and I then at this that what 53 54 years we've

[00:14:01] been through what between the two of us six administrations. You know they are not helping to move

[00:14:09] what this community needs to be doing going forward. They're not helping us maximize or leverage

[00:14:15] all that there are good people and good things going on this community they are not allowing a

[00:14:21] collaborative community wide agenda to go forward. They're sitting back and playing gotcha.

[00:14:28] Now I know we're supposed to only being doing observations but let me tell you for between the

[00:14:33] you and I we're doing over a hundred years of political of watching Jacksonville go through this

[00:14:38] and it's very evident and I can just tell you come in about three and a half four years when we're

[00:14:44] up for another mayor's election. Let me tell you gotcha is going to be a part of whether or not

[00:14:50] you were here to help move the city forward or you were there to help it move forward. Now let me

[00:14:56] tell you the people who fund those things who fund and are great employers they're going to remember

[00:15:02] what did these people do to help move our community forward and let me tell you with every action

[00:15:08] there's a reaction and a reaction to the reaction and I strongly suggest that some of these folks

[00:15:13] who have got a gotcha agenda may be thinking about what are you doing to help to move our community

[00:15:19] forward. Very good point. I hope you're right. You know one of the interesting things about that

[00:15:24] meaning to me. Darnel Smith became Mayor Diggins chief of staff recently and I think before

[00:15:33] as I know this this was one of Darnel's first public appearances he was at the committee representing

[00:15:39] the mayor and that Mike remind us who Darnel Smith is. Thank you. This is really easy. Darnel when

[00:15:48] I was at Blue Cross for 35 years. Darnel came in as started as a director and then became in charge

[00:15:54] of everything about customer service. And now he is and for the last good guys over 12 years he has been

[00:16:05] the regional president for Blue Cross Blue Shield that is from Pensacola to Jacksonville to Gainesville

[00:16:13] that is his district. He has been the past chamber of commerce. This man has a resume that is

[00:16:19] absolutely extraordinary and he was brought over to assist because can't believe he liked Mayor Diggins

[00:16:26] he is an administrator bar none. He is so respected both in Tallahassee he's respected all over

[00:16:35] the business community that he has received every business business award there is. He's an

[00:16:42] extraordinary man. He's a compassionate man. He is a man of great spirituality and I think

[00:16:50] this city thank you Pat Garrity for loaning Darnel to be a chief of staff as alone executive

[00:17:00] I think is what they call it. Darnel is great for our city. It's going to say we do the city

[00:17:05] owes a Blue Cross a great thank you for this because they did not have to do this obviously and by

[00:17:11] the way too which you did not mention the salary that at Darnel is getting as chief of staff is

[00:17:17] actually being paid for by Blue Cross. It's not coming from the taxpayers and it's not coming from

[00:17:21] the mayor's budget. It's coming from Blue Cross and you can't ask for a better sacrifice thing.

[00:17:26] I can tell you this is not the first time Blue Cross. I was also a loan executive over a number of

[00:17:32] times starting back in 1984 when they loaned me to help with the retention of the Supreme Court

[00:17:39] justice system. This is not the first time that Blue Cross is stepped up to be a corporate good

[00:17:43] corporate citizen. Actually, I understand that they were kind of upset because you actually went

[00:17:47] back to work with them. There wasn't concern that they asked me if I could work with it for it and

[00:17:53] they said one he's got to be competent to it who would help if he was a lawyer. Okay,

[00:17:57] for two.

[00:18:01] I just listened to my bad. I didn't give up my bad. Hopefully not.

[00:18:07] Let's close out this part of the program by short letting Darnel really have the last word.

[00:18:15] When Hal and opened the finance committee meeting, he said something in the very beginning

[00:18:20] that Darnel waited until the end of the meeting to address. Let's roll those two pieces of

[00:18:26] tape. I come from the business community and I was sponsored or rather supported by much

[00:18:36] of the business community in my election. So I reached back to the business community to ask

[00:18:41] questions from time to time. And one of my questions was about three or four weeks ago,

[00:18:44] is this City Council leaning too far forward on the administration regarding the single source

[00:18:48] contract and the executive overreach. And the answer consistently was no. Mr. Chair, you began

[00:18:57] the conversation today, indicating that you reached out to several members of the business community.

[00:19:04] Essentially my take away was that they're urging you to continue to do this work because

[00:19:08] it is the right work to be done. I want you to know I too reach out to the business community.

[00:19:15] And I am telling you it is clear in the minds of many that anything to have an impact on this

[00:19:23] mayor, to slow it down her down from being able to do good work to embarrass her,

[00:19:29] to be able to embarrass folks in her on her staff is just something we just got to stop.

[00:19:37] I'm encouraging you. Whatever you're looking for, it doesn't exist. We simply want to do good work

[00:19:44] and we're asking you for your support and collaboration to allow us to do that work. And please stop

[00:19:52] these type of shenanigans. They don't serve us well and they will not allow us to do the work

[00:19:58] that we need to be doing together. Well now, even though this show is really gone quickly,

[00:20:03] quicker than I thought it was. I know. I know it. We want to spend a few minutes and take some time

[00:20:11] to pay honor to one of the great Jacksonville residents that we have had who recently passed and

[00:20:16] that's Betty Olsendorf. I knew Betty but not nearly as well as the two of you knew Betty. So

[00:20:22] I'm going to leave the rest of the program up to both of you to give us some background on Betty

[00:20:27] and some of the highlights and great memories that you have from her years working with JT.

[00:20:32] With this context, let's start with Mike Talbert because of his work, his working with Betty and

[00:20:38] Jake and then I'll take it up from there. Actually, I first met Betty when I was an aide to

[00:20:46] Tansler and Betty was in the Human Resources Department. Wow. And it was pretty obvious that she

[00:20:52] was a cut above most everybody. She was smart. She was witty and she was tough as nails.

[00:20:59] And so when Jake became mayor, I recommended that he bring Betty up on his stay.

[00:21:05] And he did that and made her city council liaison. Then he was one of Jake's mere favorites and

[00:21:13] she was so good, so old type of thing. So she studied so hard that she could tell council members

[00:21:21] everything about legislation that she was dealing with. And she even had members of the general

[00:21:26] council's office come to her and ask her for her thoughts were about certain fixes legislation

[00:21:32] or explain what this bill means to you. Well, what we're trying to accomplish here and she could

[00:21:38] do it. So they were in all of them. I love Betty and many people did. Over the years when she decided

[00:21:45] to get in the legislature, I handled her messaging and media in her campaigns. And she worked extremely

[00:21:54] extremely hard. And then once she got elected, she never looked back. She was just something else.

[00:22:00] I can remember when Jake was running for reelection in 1983, we had Bill Hamilton and Bob Squire.

[00:22:10] Bill Hamilton was the poster and Bob Squires was the analytic media and they're advertising both

[00:22:16] of them out of Washington and very well known. Jake's opponent was a guy named Harold Gibson,

[00:22:24] a black man who had been an aide, the chancellor and also who had been on the city council.

[00:22:31] And I want to read you from my book about what I wrote about what Betty did back then.

[00:22:37] A few of God Bulls top, well first of all they let me go back. They said that Jake should not

[00:22:45] campaign in the black community because he would and doing so he would make Harold Gibson a

[00:22:51] morter right there. And that it curated a lot of us, especially Betty. A few of God in his top

[00:22:59] black age and I vehemently disagree. Betty holds her door for he was Godbo's highly respected,

[00:23:04] very aggressive and extremely intelligent council liaison went ballistic. She a couple of

[00:23:11] other black campaign leaders and I met with the mayor and presented him an ultimatum.

[00:23:17] Oathson Dorp said, you've served them well. You kept your promises. Now they have to make a choice.

[00:23:23] If they want to support Gibson, let them do that. We give them a choice. Then holds and door

[00:23:29] bang down the deal. If you're going to take that advice and not campaign in our community,

[00:23:34] we're going to resign. That was Betty Oathson Dorp. Actually Jake didn't take a whole lot of

[00:23:41] convincing because he loved campaigning and especially in the black community.

[00:23:45] You got that right. My memory is that he went out there and kicked Gibson's ass pretty good.

[00:23:49] I think we got by sending him a little boat out there. We could tell stories about her.

[00:23:56] I could. John Peyton, when Jake was in his second term, John Peyton who would become the mayor

[00:24:03] was an intern in the mayor's office. That's right. Jake assigned him to Betty.

[00:24:08] I think it was probably like going to graduate school for John in politics.

[00:24:12] He would tell the story that Jake would come into Betty's office with a bag of ball of

[00:24:22] peanuts and they would sit there to eat what will Pete. John would be sitting in the corner,

[00:24:26] watching all this. They sit there and start eating ball of peanuts and cussing about

[00:24:31] what's council members doing? What the who moon or what they were going to do to the next guy?

[00:24:35] Who's the ass that we're going to kick tomorrow?

[00:24:39] With them when they were done, they pick up the phone and call whoever it was. They were cussing

[00:24:43] and invite him to lunch. He said I learned a lot about that.

[00:24:49] But the good news is to me that not the good news, the bad news, sad news for all of us but

[00:24:54] the good news for St. Peter and everybody up there. Jake and Betty and Denise are all together again.

[00:25:01] So I salute her. I miss her. I appreciate her and more of those memories are just amazing

[00:25:09] for me. But with that trio by the way, I do feel very badly for the good Lord because he's got a real

[00:25:15] tough way to go if he didn't try to saddle those three together. After her death,

[00:25:21] I posted a thing on Facebook that said watch out St. Peter.

[00:25:26] Well, before I talk about her in Tallahassee, I was thinking she's up there.

[00:25:31] He's up. Jake, Denise, Senator Holzerdorf and Ed Austin. I'm going, oh, let me tell you,

[00:25:39] God has now taken his case called Mother Teresa and said, you got it for a while.

[00:25:43] I am due of vacation.

[00:25:47] Team Man. Yo, it was. And I'm not sure he's coming back anytime soon.

[00:25:52] I want to pick up on what Mike said about what Daddy brought to the table.

[00:25:57] Now when Mike talks about how and how she did her job and the expertise, that really puts into

[00:26:06] context of why Betty went over. The first is a house member in part of being one of 120

[00:26:14] and it's a Democrat at that time. So you had to stand out in order to be heard at that time.

[00:26:21] She understood the budget. She understood parliamentary procedure. She also

[00:26:28] went over there with an agenda and as I shared with the two of you, yesterday,

[00:26:34] I had the opportunity to go to attend Betty's funeral first the night before

[00:26:39] and then I went yesterday. And I will tell you, I have been unfortunately too many females.

[00:26:45] But to see and to hear all that she had done for her community, what she had done for Jacksonville.

[00:26:53] Over decades, I mean, as Mike said, it went back. Her commitment to education or commitment

[00:26:59] to kids, it didn't just start when she was in the lecture lecture. What I heard from Mike

[00:27:04] and somebody else. She went over there with Jake and all and I guess with Tansor. She knew

[00:27:09] what she was going to do. She knew what she needed to do and talking with Mike Talbert and what I

[00:27:14] heard yesterday. Let me tell you, it didn't matter who she reported to. She wanted to make sure

[00:27:21] that her community got what it wants. Let me fast forward to tell how she says she's in the house.

[00:27:27] She makes a name for herself and people were in awe of her. Now,

[00:27:32] she was from Jacksonville. So let me put this in context before I get to the Senate. So

[00:27:37] being Jacksonville still when she went over there, we were still pretty much the insurance capital

[00:27:42] of the world. Well, if you kind of think of all the big buildings in town,

[00:27:46] a lot as she would say when they would talk about raising taxes on the business community or whatever

[00:27:52] they were doing and whether read the Democrats or Republicans, she would stand up and as Mike will

[00:27:57] tell you, she would point her finger at whoever was there. And she said, I don't want you messing

[00:28:03] with those buildings because in those buildings my people were and I don't want you messing with that

[00:28:08] because you're messing with their job and you're messing with opportunities for their kids. So

[00:28:12] don't go there. Fast forward, she runs from the Senate and she gets there. I'm going to tell you,

[00:28:19] we watched it in awe again. She referred to the insurance industry because so many throughout

[00:28:25] the state of Florida, so many of the workers, so many of the employees in the insurance industry

[00:28:30] came from her community and she was incredible. But I will tell you what where her strength was

[00:28:39] and Mike and we'll probably come in on this part. Betty understood the budget process. They

[00:28:47] were, there would be the Democrats or the Republicans, we would pass a budget was in the billions of

[00:28:52] dollars and when they would bring it out, they had so many days it would have a cooling off period

[00:28:57] and it would come into a book that could be anywhere from six, six, eight inches wide.

[00:29:03] Betty understood that and what she did every time the budget went to the Senate, she would have

[00:29:09] the previous year's budget book, previous year's budget sitting on her left and on her right would

[00:29:16] be the present budget and what she did was she would take stichems and they were color coded

[00:29:23] and what she could do is find out what had been in the budget the year before

[00:29:28] what was in this year's budget, what wasn't, what was if it was increased or increased.

[00:29:33] You had senators and staff members who would come to her who would say now explain that because

[00:29:40] she was the only one who really read the budget. Now because of that, let me tell you

[00:29:45] what we would call impolitics. She had political chits so it made sure that

[00:29:51] what her legislation was going through Betty could negotiate and let me tell you, she knew how to

[00:29:57] negotiate. She knew how to keep score and let me tell you, northeast Florida but the quality of life

[00:30:04] in education, childcare, those things they came out because Betty knew how to do that. Would

[00:30:09] you not agree Mike on understand the budget? Yeah and you know I just listened to you I tell her

[00:30:16] I was surprised that you guys were two but the great respect that she carried somehow caused

[00:30:30] the governor to Santis to lure flags, the state building flags in Jacksonville to have

[00:30:36] statement her honor. I thought that was pretty damn amazing myself. It was it was brought up and

[00:30:43] not overlooked at the funeral yesterday. Was it? And it was a bipartisan funeral, it was extraordinary

[00:30:51] and the other thing that I tell you one other quick story, the respect that she had

[00:30:57] for first responders to who were there and being represented. The other thing that she had

[00:31:02] one other thing in bike, I gotta tell you this story. The other thing that Betty could do,

[00:31:07] Betty was a great cook and the other, the other, another arrow in her quiver before great meetings

[00:31:14] or things like that. She would spend all night cooking all night she'd bring it into the committee

[00:31:19] meetings you know and as they say an army runs on its stomach. On those key committees she provided

[00:31:27] the food and over breaking bread. They were deals cut. She knew how to work her proud, she knew how

[00:31:34] to do it and she was beloved. And I don't remember to Mike's point, I don't remember the last time

[00:31:41] and it's been a number of years since Betty's been there. I don't remember the last time

[00:31:46] that state flags were put in half mask for a senator who has been gone as long she has. That shows

[00:31:52] exactly the impact that she has had on the state of Florida and God rest her. She was our friend

[00:32:00] and she looked after me. I have to just tell you, she made me a legend in my own mind. I'm

[00:32:05] missing a lot of her. Well as we say in my religion and that is you know, may or so be blessed amongst

[00:32:12] all those who loved and admired her. So yeah, we all very much miss her. What did she do after she left

[00:32:19] the Senate? I'm surprised she never went into lobbying. No, you know, you gotta understand

[00:32:25] by Matt. You gotta understand his family was important to her. Yeah. And you know, her kids

[00:32:31] she was a king was on the council. King was always got she and let me tell you she was she helped

[00:32:36] one of the things that came out yesterday. There were a number of our council folks of color who were

[00:32:43] there past and present. And they all got up and said let me tell you when we ran for office,

[00:32:48] Betty is the person who I have hadn't been for Betty holes in dwarf. I wouldn't have been there.

[00:32:53] And one of the things and Mike's I thought Mike was going to go there. She said, I don't worry

[00:32:58] about polls. You work until the polls close. You don't worry about polls. And she every one

[00:33:05] there were four of them got them said, I was a lot we had to work get out the vote until the polls

[00:33:10] close. You didn't worry about polls. You worked it. Yeah. I bet she's very proud of Kevin too.

[00:33:16] She was oh yes, she was proud of all of her grandkids. And the neat thing was Kevin, Kevin was

[00:33:22] one of her favorites. She had she had so many I mean, it was just extraordinary. But

[00:33:27] Kevin filing Kevin, I can't believe he's 30. He is three kids. But his oldest son just had a baby girl

[00:33:37] and the middle name is Betty. Wow. And it was extraordinary. There were there were not many dry

[00:33:42] eyes in that in that at funeral yesterday. But the respect from so many people from all over the

[00:33:50] community. Black, white, Democrat, Republican, the love, respect and aberration they had for Betty.

[00:33:58] She was a fighter but she loved our town and it'll be a long time since we see another Betty.

[00:34:05] Yeah, we certainly will. Any final thoughts on her, Mr. Talbert?

[00:34:09] Yeah, I'll close it out with this Mr. Miller. Going back to that 1983 campaign when

[00:34:16] she stood her ground and said that Jake was my campaign out there when I was on all resign.

[00:34:22] Fast forward to the end of that campaign, the election night. We had a big party at the campaign

[00:34:28] headquarters. And Jake had done so well with the black vote in the black community. And Betty

[00:34:37] and the others had worked so damn hard. So when she arrived, remember this so well, when she

[00:34:43] arrived at the campaign headquarters for the celebration, it was like a sea of people party

[00:34:50] for her to come in and we're blogging her. And knowing that our husband's name was King,

[00:34:57] that's when I started calling her Queen because she to me was a queen. I mean she absolutely was

[00:35:05] a queen. Very good. Like yesterday, that's how they referred to her by the way. Yes, there is

[00:35:11] Queen Betty yesterday. It was it was one of the most moving experiences that I've ever had.

[00:35:19] Ever. It was just in kind of the amount of love and admiration that were in this huge building

[00:35:24] yesterday. It was extraordinary. Well, thank you both by the way for bringing all these stories out

[00:35:28] because there are things that I never heard before in this program. So I appreciate it, Mr.

[00:35:33] Talbert and Mr. Hytaur for reliving those days with all of us. My Talbert and I both feel very

[00:35:38] blessed that Betty was part of our life's journey. You were very fortunate. You were very fortunate.

[00:35:43] Very blessed. So so Mr. Miller, yes sir. Tell us whose next week's guests are going to be?

[00:35:49] Well, next week's guest and I'm going to get these I'm going to get these missed out by

[00:35:54] believe Mr. Pentazzy is next week. Is that correct if I'm not mistaken? That's right.

[00:35:58] And Drew Pentazzy from the tributary we're going through a few of the items that he's been writing

[00:36:04] about lately. And then the week after that, I'm really looking forward to this program as well.

[00:36:10] As you know, the hanker chief dropped to end the session up in Talahessie here and the son

[00:36:15] was still out. Believe it or not. Believe it or not? No earthquakes. No, no, no, no, no,

[00:36:19] it didn't happen till midnight. That's true. They did do it. They got to go home for lunch.

[00:36:24] Wasn't that something? Yeah. Anyhow, we're going to go through the legislative session and

[00:36:28] take a look at all those bills that will be impacting Northeast Florida. And we're going to have

[00:36:32] Mike Bender back with us for that. Dr. Go through that with Dr. Mike Bender, okay? So we hope

[00:36:38] that you'll tune in for all of these programs. Our thanks once again to the Jacksonville Historical Society.

[00:36:42] Thank you. Mike Toberth, thank you very much for joining us from the barn. Mike Hightower,

[00:36:46] always a pleasure to have you here and please catch us next time on your favorite platform

[00:36:51] where you get your favorite podcast. That's a good week everybody. Y'all are here. Thank you.

[00:36:55] Mike's on Mike with Mike Toberth, Mike Hightower and Mike Miller can be found on your favorite

[00:37:00] podcasting platform, Facebook and YouTube. Visit the website at micsonmike.com. Join us next time

[00:37:08] for more conversation with Mike's on Mike.